1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-car information system, and an information terminal and an application execution method used in the in-car information system.
2. Description of Related Art
There are systems known in the related art that coordinate operations of a portable information terminal such as a portable telephone or a smart phone and an onboard device so as to allow an image and sound, originating from the information terminal as any of various applications is executed at the information terminal, to be output from the information terminal to the onboard device and ultimately allow the image and sound to be output at the onboard device. For instance, in a system disclosed in patent literature 1 (Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 2012-10287) functional information to be used to identify a specific function of an apparatus installed in a vehicle is held in a wireless IC tag or the like, and an information terminal, after reading the functional information, automatically starts up the corresponding application program.
In the system disclosed in patent literature 1, the application program corresponding to the functional information, having been started up at the information terminal, exchanges information with the partner on board apparatus. This means that a specific data format, a specific protocol and the like for the communication between the information terminal and the onboard device must be set in advance in correspondence to each application. However, the various applications may have been developed by different manufacturers and, furthermore, the manufacturer of an application program may be different from the manufacturer of the onboard device. For this reason, the quality of communication carried out between the information terminal and the onboard device may be different from one application to another and, in some cases, it may be difficult to carry out normal communication. In addition, an existing application will have to be modified so as to add a communication function enabling communication between the information terminal and the onboard device if it is to be used in the system.